It
can almost be considered a tradition within the black metal sphere
that bands release a long slew of demos, splits, and rehearsal tapes
before getting down to the nitty gritty of a full-length slab. Vlad
Tepes had such a great time of it that they simply never bothered to
put out anything on a label at all, opting instead to independently
release demo after demo, building up an underground following, until
finally deciding that the most nonconformist act they could possibly
do was to stop playing music as Vlad Tepes. That’s tradition for
you, and it’s still as strong today as it was in ’96. Obviously
no one forwarded that memo on to Hornwood Fell, whose first s/t
full-length, released February 2014, comes at you as confidently as a
band who has had all the time in the world to demonstrate how noxious
and frost-bound they can be.

Hailing
from Italy, this is a trio of musicians who have played with each
other in many different projects before finally arriving at Hornwood
Fell, so it makes perfect sense that they wouldn’t need to spend
much time demoing material as most new bands would prefer. Instead,
much like the music itself, cutting right to the chase was their
modus operandi, and this 42 minute venture to the impenetrable heart
of the forest is every bit as orthodox as anything I’ve heard from
the abyssal depths of European black metal. If you want
experimentation, you’d best see Mirai Kawashima, because this is as
text book as it gets.

This
bastard kicks off with absolutely zero warning, opener ‘Cerqua’
blasts into action with as little build-up as you put into pressing
“play”. Immediately you’ll find yourself battered down by
rapid, coarse drumming that will continue torturously for the
duration of the record, very rarely letting up and never softening in
timbre. ‘Tempesta’ thunders in after a short breather, delivering
spiteful, despondent and monotonous guitar work save for moments of
technical finger trickery here and there to shimmer over that
ceaseless, breakneck percussion. ‘Merca’ follows on with much of
the same venom, though a moment of acoustic discordancy catches you
off guard, a sound that the band will make great use of over the rest
of the record. The track ends in ghostly, opiate tones and ambiance
before kicking into bizarre furor with ‘L’ira’, a track that
once again collapses into divergent folk madness.

‘Mutavento’
and ‘VinterFresa part one’ assault you with one last sustained
outburst of hostility, making use of every caustic riff, hammering
beat, and pound bass line left in the band’s arsenal before
‘VinterFresa part two’ tells a gentle ode with forlorn guitar
strings and the desolate snapping of forest ground underfoot.

Hornwood
Fell’s first offering is a very static, atmospheric record that
refuses to change in tone barring moments of intricacy that break it
up into noticeable segments, and this approach is certainly
befitting for a sound evoking images of nature and isolation. It will
either have you hooked from start to finish, or its repetition will
irritate you. Favouring speed and aggression over sheer weight, this
is certainly for fans of the ‘second wave’ black metal that has
defined the genre for the past 20 years. It’s a pleasing dose for
the speed junkie, and hopefully a sign of good things to come

Words
by Liam Doyle

Thanks
to Avantgarde Music for sending me the promo to review. The album
will be available to buy now

Band Submissions

To those bands who have recently issued their first demo or album via bandcamp and would like to be featured on our 666 Pack Review or considered for a full review or stream please contact Aaron via email including your EPK, band bio, album file or download code, including artwork.

To those bands issuing their sophomore record and so on and would like to be considered for a review or stream on the blog. Get in touch using the same address above

We will consider bands from any genre but exclusively stoner, sludge, doom, psych, post-metal, experimental, black-metal etc. (Whilst I would like to respond to every email, this is not always possible.) Thanks